are fluorescent softlights any good for shooting @ night? I was set to buy some HMI's but i thought maybe i could do with some softlight in my arsenal...i was just wondering what the do/ don'ts are of fluorescents...i've never shot with them before. all i know about is the green spike.
Fluorescents in te night...
- Thread starter kerromac
- Start date
Fluorescence doesn't have a CRI problem which produces the green spike (at least if you buy them from manufacturers like Cool Lights or Kino they don't). They're fine for a soft source or fill but for night scenes an HMI would come in much more handy since fluorescence doesn't have a long throw, meaning their light intensity diminishes very quickly over a distance compared to a hard source like an HMI. For night lighting it's critical that the background be well light, and a hard light source would better accomplish this from a distance while staying out of the frame.
Ryan Patrick O'Hara
Veteran
I personally always have hard(er) sources, because they are so darn easy to turn into soft. A 4x4 bounce or diffusion frame can make a hard source soft in 5 seconds! The only real advantage of a kino is power consumption (thus heat output too), and the versatility of the actual bulbs (meaning I can tape bare bulbs to walls, ceilings, etc. They are light weight if away from the ballast).